Snow removing and melting machine



July 22, 1969 L. G. JACQUES SNOW REMOVING AND MELTING MACHINE 4SheetsSheet 1 Filed May 5, 1967 July 22, 1969 L. G. JACQUES SNOWREMOVING AND MELTING MACHINE 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 5, 1967 mm Q r y1969 cs. JACQUES 3,456,368

sNow REMOVING AND MELTING MACHINE I Filed May 5, 1987 4 Sheets-Sheet I5lac/en Ge'rnrd '17/1600? 5 July 22, 1969 L. G. JACQUES SNOW REMOVING ANDMELTING MACHINE 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed May 5, 1967 Y 5 5 M m M 7 MM w JM u '8 6 n 0 a United States Patent 3,456,368 SNOW REMOVING AND MELTINGMACHINE Lucien Gerard Jacques, 133 Grande Fourche, Sherbrooke, Quebec,Canada Filed May 5, 1967, Ser. No. 636,536 Int. Cl. E0111 /10; F24h1/06; B08!) 3/10 US. Cl. 37-12 12 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Asnow removing and melting machine mounted on a motor vehicle, preferablya heavy truck. In front of the motor vehicle and attached to the frontbumper, there are provided hot water spraying means. Underneath thetruck there is a water and slush pick-up unit. This unit is situatedbetween the front and the rear wheels and is capable of receiving waterand slush resulting from the treatment of the snow by means of the abovehot water spraying means. This unit may comprise a scraper, an impellerand a suitable pumping device to carry the mixture of Water and slush toa reservoir wherein the remaining snow is melted and water is heated,preferably by means of oil fired heaters, to be therafter delivered tothe hot water spraying means.

This invention relates to a snow removing and melting machine. Moreparticularly, the invention is concerned with a snow removal devicemounted on a motor vehicle and making use of a hot water spray to meltand remove snow from a snow covered surface. Part of the water producedfrom melting the snow is recycled and heated for melting additionalsnow.

In the past, the snow removal problems have been partly resolved byutilizing a great variety of devices involving a number of operationsbut always at the cost of large expenditures. The usual method consistsin using snow plows to accumulate snow banks on the sides of a street orof a highway and loading the accumulated snow in suitable carriers suchas trucks or the like by means of snow blowers. This involves a largedisplay of machines and manpower. When the snow removal is in progress,the streets are practically completely occupiedby the snow removalequipment, thereby contributing to increase traffic jams in a city ofsubstantial size and population.

Furthermore, as the size of a city increases, the distance to which snowhas to be carried away becomes more and more substantial, thus againraising the operational costs of snow removal.

In order to cut down the expenses required in the usual snow removalmethods, it has been suggested to melt the snow instead of carrying itaway usually at far reaching distances. However, the devices which havebeen designed up to date are often quite expensive and are notcompletely satisfactory. For example, it has been suggested to pick-upsnow by means of a suction blower and convey it to a melting chambermounted at the rear of a motor vehicle. Such a device requires a complexoperational system for both the suction blower and the melting chamber,and has proven to he unsatisfactory since the capacity of the meltingchamber as compared with the snow input in the suction blower cannot bealways equitated. Other machines make use of a heating device mounted infront of the motor vehicle to melt the snow and are provided withvarious devices to get rid of the water or water and slush thusproduced. Such a heating device is usually a complex mechanicalstructure and has not appeared to be practical.

It has been found that the above disadvantages may be overcome byproviding a snow removing and melting machine mounted on a motor vehicleand comprising hot "ice Water spraying means mounted in front of themotor vehicle and adapted to convert snow into water and slush. A waterand slush pick-up unit is mounted underneath the motor vehiclerearwardly of the hot water spraying means to receive a mixture of waterand slush produced by the hot water spraying means. The device alsocomprises means for conveying the water and slush from the pick-up unitinto a reservoir mounted on the motor vehicle, and means for conveyingwater and slush from the reservoir to the spraying means, includingheating means to raise the temeprature of the mixture of water andslush.

Preferably, the melting machine comprises means in the receptacle tochange the mixture of water and slush into water so that only water isconveyed from the reservoir to the heating means and from there to thespraying means.

In the drawings which illustrate an embodiment according to theinvention,

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the snow removing and melting machineaccording to the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a longitudinal view illustrating the operation of the deviceaccording to the invention;

FIGURE 3 is a top plan view of the device according to the invention;

FIGURE 4 is a section taken along line 44 of FIG- URE 2;

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view illustrating the water and slush inputfunnel;

FIGURE 6 is a cross-section view of the scoop and apron plate of theinput funnel shown in FIGURE 5;

FIGURE 7 is a top plan view of the first scraper and of its controldevice;

FIGURE 8 is a top plan view of the second scraper and of its controldevice;

FIGURE 9 is a longitudinal view of the snow removing machine accordingto the invention, provided with a pair of pivoting scrapers; and

FIGURE 10 is a top plan view of the machine illustrated in FIGURE 9.

Referring to the drawings, it will be realized that the snow removingand melting machine according to the present invention generallycomprises a motor vehicle 1 provided with a hot water spraying unit 3mounted in front of the vehicle, a scraper underneath the motor vehicle1 for directing the water and slush produced by the hot spraying unit 3into a suction funnel unit 7 and from there into a reservoir 9. Themachine comprises heating means 11 for heating the water from thereservoir 9 and a plurality of ducts 13 for conveying the hot water intothe spraying unit 3.

With particular reference to FIGURES 1, 2 and 3, the motor vehicle 1 isprovided with a reinforced bumper 15 mounted at the front thereof. Thebumper 15 is provided with a pair of bracket supports 17 mounted on theupper face of the bumper 15. On each of the brackets 17 there isconnected a hydraulic lifter 19 provided at the other end thereof with aclamp 21 engaging the carrier 23. Since the clamp 21 is in pivotalengagement with the bracket 25 at the end of the hydraulic lifter 19, itis obvious that the carrier 23 will always be in a vertical positionwith respect to the snow covered surface.

For a better rigidity of the carrier when it is in operation over a snowcovered surface, there is provided a pair of braces 27 adapted to pivotat both ends thereof at the rear of said carrier 23 and underneath thebumper 15. The carrier 23 is provided with a number of nozzles 29 whichare adapted to spray hot water on the snow covered surface, the hotwater being lead from the reservoir 9 through the ducts 13 into thenozzle 29.

Underneath the motor vehicle 1 and rearwardly of the front wheels 30thereof, there is provided a scraper 5 as mentioned above, which may berotated to carry the mixture of water and slush produced by the sprayingunit 3 into either side of the suction funnel 7. Reference is made toFIGURE 7 for the operation of the scraper leading the mixture of waterand slush into either side of the suction funnel 7. A V-shaped support31 is fixedly secured at the ends thereof to the upper portion of thescraper 5. The apex 33 of the said V-shaped support 31 is mounted at theend of a shaft 35 (FIGURE 2) to pivot about the axis of the said shaft.The shaft 35 may be rotated through any suitable pivoting means 37mounted underneath the motor vehicle 1. The control for the pivotingmeans 37 which is of standard construction should be inside the vehicle1, although not shown in the drawings. The pivoting means is illustratedschematically in FIGURE 2.

Referring again to FIGURE 7, it will be realized that by pivotingclockwise the shaft 35 and the V-shaped support 31, the mixture of Waterand slush will be directed towards the right hand side of the suctionfunnel 7. Reversely, when pivoting the shaft 35 counterclockwise, thescraper 5 will adopt the position illustrated in dotted lines in FIGURE7 and the mixture of water and slush will enter the suction funnel 7 onthe left hand side thereof.

For a description of the suction funnel 7, reference is made to FIGURES2, 5, 6 and 7. The suction funnel 7 may be subdivided into two portions39 and 41. 39 is the water and slush mixture entrance and 41 is thesuction portion of the suction funnel 7. The entrance side 39 of thesuction funnel 7 is better illustrated in FIGURE 5. It is in the generalshape of a rectangular enclosure having the upper face and one longerside thereof removed therefrom. The bottom portion of the entranceportion 39 comprises an apron plate 43 (FIGURE 6) provided at one endthereof with a scoop 45 and pivoting at the other end thereof 47 at thejunction between the two portions 39 and 41 of the suction funnel 7. Itwill be realized that as the motor vehicle proceeds on the highway, theapron plate 43 will pick up the water and slush mixture produced by thespraying unit 3, by having the scoop 45 thereof riding on the surface ofthe highway. There are two inlets 49 and 51 for the mixture of water andslush to pass from the entrance of the suction funnel to the suctionportion 41 thereof. When it is intended to have the water and slushmixture enter through the left side through the inlet 51, the scraper 7is pivoted counterclockwise so that the water and slush mixture enter inthe lefthand side through inlet 51 of the suction portion 41 of thesuction funnel 7. If the right side through inlet 49 is preferred, thescraper 7 is pivoted clockwise and the operation will proceed asillustrated in FIGURE 2.

There is a sliding door 53 provided in the partition dividing theentrance 39 and the suction portion 41 to open one of the inlets 49 or51 while closing the other. For example, as shown in FIGURE 5, inlet 51is opened while inlet 49 is closed.

Suction portion 41, near the inlets 49 and 51 has an impeller 55 adaptedto rotate counterclockwise about a horizontal shaft not shown. Theimpeller 55 is mounted within an enclosure defined by vertical walls 56and an arcuate bottom portion 57. The mixture of water and slush ispicked up by the blades of the impeller 55 and is thrown rearwardly intoa rectangular container 59 where it will be pumped into the reservoir 9.

Referring to FIGURES 1 and 2 it will be seen that the mixture of waterand slush will be discharged laterally from the bottom of therectangular container 59 through a conduit 61. The conduit 61, asaforesaid, is connected laterally at one end thereof to the bottom ofcontainer 59 and at the other end thereof at 63 on top of the reservoir9. In order to suck the mixture of water and slush from the container 59and convey it into the reservoir 9 there is a high capacity pump 64mounted on conduit 61, so that as long as there is a mixture of waterand slush in the container 59 it will be immediately discharged from thebottom of the container 59, through the conduit 61, into the reservoir9.

In order to free the street or highway surface of any surplus water andslush mixture there is provided, rearwardly of the suction funnel 7, anadditional scraper 65 (FIGURE 2). The scraper 65 is fixedly mounted onan inner disc 67 rotatable within an outer ring 69 (FIGURE 8). The outerring 69 is fixedly connected such as by Welding to a V-shaped support 71fixedly mounted at its apex (not shown) somewhere underneath the body ofthe motor vehicle. The inner rotatable disc 67 may be rotated byoperating a pair of hydraulic lifters 73 and 75 in opposite directions.For example, by extending the hydraulic lifter 73 and by retracting thehydraulic lifter 75 the scraper 65 will be rotated clockwise. Viceversa, by extending the hydraulic lifter 75 and by retracting thehydraulic lifter 73 the scraper 65 will be rotated counterclockwise. Ingeneral, it may be stated that the two scrapers 5 and 65 should berotated in the same direction so that if the first scraper 5 is adjustedto direct the mixture of water and slush toward the right-hand side ofthe suction funnel unit 7, the scraper 65 will be adjusted to move amixture of water and slush which has not been picked up by the suctionfunnel 7 on the right-hand shoulder of the highway or on the right-handside of the street. On the other hand, the first scraper 9 may beadjusted to direct water and slush towards the lefthand side of thesuction funnel unit while the second scraper moves remnant portions ofwater and slush to the center of the street or highway.

As aforesaid the mixture of water and slush is lead from the container59 by means of the conduit 61 and pump 64 into the reservior 9. From thebottom of the reservoir 9, there are six water ducts 77, 79, 81, 83, and87 to transfer Water from the bottom of said reservoir 9 into sixdilferent heating units 89, 91, 93, 95, 97 and 99 provided on said motorvehicle 1 alongside of said reservoir 9. In each of the heating units,there is provided an oil burner. Since all these oil burners areidentical, only one has been illustrated at 101 in heating unit 89. Forsupplying these oil burners, oil is fed from the oil tank 103 mounted onthe motor vehicle at the back of the cab 105 by means of an oil duct107. Since the motor of the above motor vehicle 1 i preferably of thediesel type, the oil tank 103 could at the same time supply oil to thediesel motor and to the oil burners 101. This oil burner 101 will beused to heat water coming from the reservoir 9 and passing into theheating unit 81 through a coil 109. In all the heating units 89 to 99inclusive the water flows laterally from the outlets 77 to 87 inclusiveat the bottom of reservoir 9 to the upper portion of the heating unit bymeans of suitable ducts. Reference is made to FIGURE 4 for theillustration of the water circulation from the resorvoir 9 into thefirst heating unit. It will be seen that ducts 111 provided with asuitable pump 113 will convey water from the reservoir 9 to the upperportion of heating unit 89 into heating coil 109 down to the lowerportion of the heating unit 89. Turning now to heating unit 91 to 99,the water entering the upper portion of these units in the respectiveheating coils is heated therein and is taken out at the bottom of theseheating units by means of the respec tive Water outlets 115 to 123inclusive (FIGURES 2 and 3). These outlets 115 to 123 inclusive areconnected to respective hot water ducts 13 to convey the hot waterproduced in the heating coils into the spraying means 3 to be projectedon the snow covered surface by means of the nozzles 29. It is desirableto have a pre-heating step in the reservoir in order to melt the snow inthe water and slush mixture. For that purpose, there is provided at thebottom of heating unit 89 a water outlet 125 connected to a duct 127 toconvey hot Water heated in the heating coil 109 into the upper portionof the reservoir 9 at water inlet 129. If any snow remains in themixture of water and slush pumped into the reservoir 9, it will beimmediately transformed into water through this preheating step. Thecirculation of water is assured by means of the pump 64 which is adaptedto pump the mixture of water and slush from the container 59 into thereservoir 9 and by means of further pumps 113 mounted on each of theducts 111 conveying water from the bottom of the reservoir 9 to the topof the heating coils in the heating units 89 to 99 inclusive.

There is of course provided an outlet valve 130 to remove the surplusWater from the reservoir 9. Furthermore, each of the heating units 89 to99 inclusive is provided with a gas outlet 131 to 141 respectively, allof said gas outlets being connected to a suitable duct 143 to exhaustthe gases from the gas burners into a gas flue 145.

Finally, on top of the reservoir 9 there is provided a water inlet 147to at least partly fill said reservoir before initiating the snowremoving process.

The hot water flow in ducts 13 is assured through control 149 which atthe same time regulates the heating capacity of the oil burners 101. Forthat purpose, the control 149 is connected to water valves 151 and alsoto the oil burners. Since the same control operate both the oil burnersand the water valves, the temperature of the hot water coming out of thespraying means is always the same, the only variation being in theamount of hot water used.

In a further embodiment illustrated in FIGURES 9 and 10, the snowremoving and melting machine according to the invention is provided witha pair of lateral scrapers 153 and 155 mounted for swinging movement oneach side of the motor vehicle 1 through vertical pivot connections 157and 159, respectively mounted on brackets 156, 158. The scrapers areconstructed for operation between an open position illustrated in FIGUREand a retracted non-operating position shown in dotted lines in FIGURE10. For this purpose, scrapers 153, 155 are connected to two hydrauliccylinders 163. These scrapers serve to pick up snow or a mixture of snowand slush which would not be picked up by the scraper 5. The improvedassembly is obviously capable of cleaning a street over the entire widththereof.

As stated above, the scraper 153 may be adjusted to any intermediateposition comprised between those illustrated in FIGURE 10. Thisoperation is carried out by operating the hydraulic cylinders 163 whichare mounted underneath the cab of the motor vehicle. On the other hand,it may be desirable to vertically adjust the scraper by slightly raisingits lower edge above the surface of the road, as illustrated by thearrow a in FIGURE 9. This may be obtained by operating the hydrauliccylinder 161 and by mounting brackets 156, 158 on the cab to be pivotedabove horizontal axes 160, 162.

I claim:

1. A snow removing and melting machine mounted on a motor vehicle, saidmachine comprising:

(a) hot water spraying means mounted in front of said motor vehicle andadapted to convert snow into water and slush;

(b) a water and slush pick-up unit mounted underneath said motor vehiclerearwardly of said hot water spraying means to receive a mixture ofwater and slush produced by the said hot Water spraying means;

(c) means for conveying the water and slush from said pick-up unit intoa reservoir mounted on the motor vehicle; and

(d) means for conveying said water and slush mixture from said reservoirto said spraying means, including heating means in said reservoir toraise the temperature of the mixture of Water and slush.

2. A snow removing and melting machine according to claim 1, said hotwater spraying means comprising an elongated carrier adjustably mountedin front of said motor vehicle and a plurality of hot water ductsadapted to convey hot water from said heating means into a plurality ofnozzles provided in said carrier.

3. A snow removing and melting machine according to claim 1, said waterand slush pick-up unit comprising a scraper rotatably mounted underneathsaid motor vehicle.

4. A snow removing and melting machine according to claim 3, saidpick-up unit further comprising, rearwardly of said rotatable scraper, afunnel device provided with an impeller adapted to receive said mixtureof water and slush and to propel the same into a container mountedrearwardly of the said impeller.

5. A snow removing and melting machine according to claim 4, said meansfor conveying said Water and slush from said pick-up unit including aduct having mounted thereon a suction pump and adapted to convey thesaid mixture of water and slush from the bottom of said container intothe upper portion of the said reservoir.

6. A snow removing and melting machine according to claim 1, whereinsaid reservoir is provided at the bottom portion thereof with wateroutlets leading into a plurality of heating units mounted on said motorvehicle along said reservoir to raise the temperature of said water andslush.

7. A snow removing and melting machine according to claim 6, whereineach of said heating units comprises a heating coil through which watercirculates from the top to the bottom of said heating units and whereinsaid heating coil is heated by means of an oil burner mounted in sidsaid heating unit.

8. A snow removing and melting machine according to claim 7, wherein oneof the heating units is provided with means to recirculate heated waterback into the Water reservoir.

9. A snow removing and melting machine according to claim 8, wherein theremaining heating units are provided with water outlets adapted toconvey hot Water by means of hot Water ducts to said hot water sprayingmeans.

10. A snow removing and melting machine according to claim 1, whereinthere is provided an additional scraper rearwardly of said pick-up unitto remove remains of water and slush which have not been picked up bythe pick-up unit.

11. A snow removing and melting machine mounted on a motor vehicle, saidmachine comprising:

(a) an elongated carrier adjustably mounted in front of said motorvehicle, said carrier being provided with a plurality of nozzles capableof spraying hot water on a snow covered surface to produce a mixture ofwater and slush;

(b) a scraper rotatably mounted underneath said motor vehicle rearwardlyof said elongated carrier to pick up said mixture of water and slush;

(c) a funnel device provided with an impeller mounted underneath saidmotor vehicle rearwardly of said scraper and adapted to receive saidmixture of water and slush from said scraper and to propel the same intoa container mounted rearwardly of the said impeller;

(d) a duct and pump unit connected at one end thereof laterally to thebottom of said container and at the other end thereof to the upperportion of a water and slush reservoir mounted on said motor vehicle, toconvey said mixture of Water and slush from said container to saidreservoir;

(e) water outlets provided at the bottom portion of said reservoir andleading into a plurality of heating units mounted on said motor vehiclealong said reservoir, to convey water from said reservoir to saidheating units;

(f) pump means between said reservoir and said heating units to forcecirculation of water in said machine;

(g) heating coils in said heating units through which water circulatesdownwardly;

(h) oil burners inside said heating units to heat the water circulatingin said heating coils;

(i) means on at least one of said heating units to recirculate hot waterback into said reservoir; and

(j) means on the remaining heating units to convey hot water into thenozzles provided in said carrier.

12. A snow removing and melting machine according to claim 11, furthercomprising a pair of lateral scrapers mounted for swinging movement oneach side of the motor vehicle through pivot connections provided onboth sides of said motor vehicles, said lateral scrapers connected tofirst hydraulic cylinders mounted underneath said motor vehicle tooperate said lateral scrapers between an open position and a retractednon-operating position, said lateral scrapers further connected tosecond hydraulic cylinders mounted on each side of said motor vehicle,said second hydraulic cylinders operating to vertically adjust said 1lateral scrapers by slightly raising the lower edges thereof above thesurface of the road, said lateral scrapers serving to pick up snow or amixture of snow and slush which is not picked up by said rotatablymounted scraper.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS

